Westminster Bridge
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 3 ″ N , 0 ° 7 ′ 18 ″ W.
| Westminster Bridge | ||
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| Official name | Westminster Bridge | |
| use | Road bridge | |
| Convicted | Main road A302 | |
| Crossing of | Thames | |
| place | London | |
| construction | Wrought iron arch bridge | |
| overall length | 252 m | |
| width | 26 m | |
| Number of openings | 7th | |
| start of building | 1st bridge - 1739 2nd bridge - 1854 |
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| opening | 1st bridge - 1750 2nd bridge - May 1862 |
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The Westminster Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames in London . It connects the City of Westminster on the west side with the district of Lambeth in the London Borough of Lambeth on the east side. The main road A302 runs above it. On the west bank are the Palace of Westminster , Parliament Square and Portcullis House , on the east bank County Hall with the London Eye and Waterloo train station .
The bridge is 252 meters long and 26 meters wide. It crosses the Thames with seven wrought iron arches . The outer, cast iron arched elements have neo-Gothic decorations by Charles Barry , the architect of the Palace of Westminster. The bridge is painted green to match the color of the leather armchairs in the House of Commons , the boardroom of which faces Westminster Bridge. The Lambeth Bridge, on the other hand, is painted red, which corresponds to the color of the House of Lords .
history
During the reign of Elizabeth I there were several attempts to pass a law to build a bridge, but the City of London always resisted successfully. The only way to cross the river in the vicinity was by ferry at what is now Lambeth Bridge, although the tides often made it dangerous to use. In 1734, the Swiss civil engineer Charles Labelye presented a new project and, with the support of the Earl of Pembroke , succeeded in obtaining parliamentary approval in 1736.
The Earl of Pembroke laid the foundation stone in 1739. First caissons were lowered into the river bed. But the construction work was not a lucky star: Despite the permission to run a lottery , there were constant financing problems. Hard winters, wars on the European mainland, sabotage by river boatmen, accidents and a small earthquake caused numerous delays. Cracks appeared in the masonry and in 1747 stones fell from the fifth arch of the bridge into the river. The bridge, which is 316 meters long and 13.5 meters wide, was not opened until 1750. In the meantime it had been given the unflattering nickname Bridge of Fools .
The bridge tended to sway on its foundations. After the old London Bridge was demolished in 1831 , the flood washed away the foundations of Westminster Bridge and deposited more and more mud. In 1836, James Walker began a gradual renovation of the bridge, which took ten years.
After completing this work, he designed a plan for a completely new building together with Charles Barry , George Rennie and Thomas Page . Construction work began in 1854 with the foundation of the granite abutments in a caisson. In May 1862, the new, much more stable bridge was inaugurated. Its seven elliptical arches have spans of 28.70 m up to 34.90 m in the middle arch, which has a clearance height of 5.40 m above MHWS (Mean High Water Spring). The arches each consist of numerous wrought iron ribs with cross bracing. On the outside, the arches are covered with cast iron facings, and the decorations with coats of arms in the spandrels are also made of cast iron. The bridge panel is around 26 m wide and is bordered on the sides with balustrades . After the renovation of London Bridge, Westminster Bridge is now the oldest Thames Bridge in London. Apart from the removal of a few smaller cracks in 1924 and the replacement of the cast iron parts in 2005–2007, hardly any repairs were ever necessary.
On March 22, 2017, an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack occurred on Westminster Bridge .
Web links
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- Westminster Bridge. In: Structurae
- Westminster Bridge on Tour.UK
- Where Thames smooth waters glide - Westminster Bridge detailed display with historical illustrations
- William Humber: A Complete Treatise on Cast and Wrought Iron Bridge Construction . With a description of Westminster Bridge. Lockwood & Co., London 1870, p. 186–188 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- New Westminster Bridge in London. Plan drawing in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , 1857, sheet 30
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upstream Lambeth Bridge |
River crossings of the Thames |
downstream tunnel of the Jubilee Line tunnel of the Bakerloo Line Hungerford Bridge |